Rethinking histology slide digitization workflows for low-resource settings Conference Paper


Authors: Zehra, T.; Marino, J.; Wang, W.; Frantsuzov, G.; Nadeem, S.
Title: Rethinking histology slide digitization workflows for low-resource settings
Conference Title: 27th International Conference of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2024)
Abstract: Histology slide digitization is becoming essential for telepathology (remote consultation), knowledge sharing (education), and using the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms (augmented/automated end-to-end clinical workflows). However, the cumulative costs of digital multi-slide high-speed brightfield scanners, cloud/on-premises storage, and personnel (IT and technicians) make the current slide digitization workflows out-of-reach for limited-resource settings, further widening the health equity gap; even single-slide manual scanning commercial solutions are costly due to hardware requirements (high-resolution cameras, high-spec PC/workstation, and support for only high-end microscopes). In this work, we present a new cloud slide digitization workflow for creating scanner-quality whole-slide images (WSIs) from uploaded low-quality videos, acquired from cheap and inexpensive microscopes with built-in cameras. Specifically, we present a pipeline to create stitched WSIs while automatically deblurring out-of-focus regions, upsampling input 10× images to 40× resolution, and reducing brightness/contrast and light-source illumination variations. We demonstrate the WSI creation efficacy from our workflow on World Health Organization-declared neglected tropical disease, Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (prevalent only in the poorest regions of the world and only diagnosed by sub-specialist dermatopathologists, rare in poor countries), as well as other common pathologies on core biopsies of breast, liver, duodenum, stomach and lymph node. The code and pretrained models will be accessible via our GitHub (https://github.com/nadeemlab/DeepLIIF), and the cloud platform will be available at https://deepliif.org for uploading microscope videos and downloading/viewing WSIs with shareable links (no sign-in required) for telepathology and knowledge sharing. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.
Keywords: medical education; medical imaging; diagnosis; dermatology; diseases; telepathology; knowledge acquisition; mhealth; whole slide images; digitisation; work-flows; cloud platform; limited-resource settings; neglected diseases; slide digitization; stitching; cloud platforms; histology slides; limited-resource setting; neglected disease
Journal Title Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Volume: 15004
Conference Dates: 2024 Oct 6-10
Conference Location: Marrakesh, Morocco
ISBN: 0302-9743
Publisher: Springer  
Date Published: 2024-01-01
Start Page: 427
End Page: 436
Language: English
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-72083-3_40
PROVIDER: scopus
DOI/URL:
Notes: This paper was published in a conference book with ISBN: 978-3-031-72082-6 -- Source: Scopus
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MSK Authors
  1. Saad Nadeem
    50 Nadeem
  2. Joseph Marino
    5 Marino
  3. Wanting Wang
    1 Wang